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Cowboy mounted shooting may sound like an activity reserved for a John Wayne film, but it’s actually the fastest growing horse sport in the country. And Kodiak is no exception to the fad.
Johnny Walker doesn’t call himself a cowboy, but as a life-long horse rider and lover of mounted shooting, it would make sense if he did. Walker has been in Kodiak this summer leading horse camps with the Kodiak Baptist Mission and recently started working with riders, young and old, on the techniques of the shooting sport.
“And basically what that is, is there’s a patter of balloons placed in the arena, and a rider rides in, and they take a revolver loaded with blanks, so there’s no danger to the audience, no danger to the rider or the horse. And they burst those balloons with these blanks. And they’re under a time and the person that does that in the shortest time becomes the winner.”

Walker said he didn’t think he’d be teaching mounted shooting when he
came to Kodiak, he simply wanted to introduce young riders to horses.
But when more than 50 kids signed up for the camp, he said it was clear
that they should take it a step further. Walker said he and Mission Director Trevor Jones
decided to put on a shooting tournament at the Fairgrounds, and opened
it up to anyone interested in taking their horsemanship a step
further.
“The children’s event in that is
basically they ride the pattern. They go into the ring, they won’t be
handling any firearms, but they’ll actually be going into the ring and
riding that pattern, under time and trying to sort of get their feet wet
in this sport.”

Walker said he’s been out at the fairgrounds every day working with
community members and horses to get things ready for the tournament this
Friday.
“The adult portion where they
actually fire the blanks takes quite a bit of work to get a horse ready
to stand that blank. The blank’s loud, it sounds just like a real gun,
so it takes a while to get the horse used to it.”
He said he’s pleasantly surprised at the interest in the sport, and
thinks it could really take off in Kodiak. A handful of local horse
enthusiasts have expressed interest in participating in the tournament
on Friday, which Walker said will be more of a demonstration than
anything. However, folks don’t need to own a horse to get involved with
it. He said anyone who is interested, no matter their age, should
contact the Baptist Mission to meet up with him and learn about how the
sport works.
“Some local people have very
generously provided some horses to be used I a way that if someone
wanted to show up and try this, there’ll actually be a horse or two here
that they could try. And sort of see how they liked it. So if someone
has an interest in this sport, they need to come out, they can try it,
they can borrow everything, we have everything necessary here, every
cost will be covered by the Kodiak Baptist Mission so it’s 100 percent
free. Free to the kids, free admission, there won’t be any charge to
anybody for anything.”
But for those who just want to watch the tournament demonstration,
they can do so this Friday at 7 p.m. at the Fairgrounds. As Walker said,
the entire event is free, and there will be a number of prizes raffled
off to spectators and those who participate.
Ideally, if someone is interested in taking part in the actual
riding, Walker said they should contact the mission well before Friday
so they can get a feel for it before the event.